Realigning myself as a filmmaker
I've been feeling a little uninspired recently and have found new ideas for film hard to come by. Having recently moved again, this time from London to Catania (Sicily), I find myself in another adjustment period. In 2020, I moved from London to Skopje (N. Macedonia) and then back to London in 2022. Both moves to and from Skopje represented their own adjustment period. Nonetheless, my filmmaking career moved forward as much as it could. Odd jobs here and there kept me going, as well as co-building a production company that moves forward now without my current involvement because of my moving country. All that being said, my focus is (as ever) on writing and directing; however, without output, I know I will never achieve that dream.
That's where the Sight and Sound 2022 Directors' Poll of the 100 greatest films of all time comes in. In his book On Writing, Stephen King says, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” This always stood out to me because it felt so logical and so doable. I firmly believe the same principle applies to filmmaking. If you want to be a filmmaker, you need to watch a lot and you need to make films. I've made a fair amount in the last few years, but I've not watched nearly enough.
My letterbox says I've watched 402 movies since December 2020. I say only because I've had more than enough time in that period to at least have watched double. Nonetheless, in an attempt to generate some inspiration for myself and help these rookie numbers increase, I will be watching all the films I've not already seen on the Sight and Sound director's list. After which, I will write down, in a blog entry, what I learnt about filmmaking from each movie.
Suppose I were to outline my objectives for this. In that case, I'd likely state that they include developing the habit of watching films more frequently, broadening my understanding of cinema, finding inspiration in the stories and filmmaking techniques, generating more ideas, and ultimately realigning myself as a filmmaker. Much of my identity is tied to the notion that I am a filmmaker, and I often feel I am not fully living up to this. Thus, instead of remaining passive, this is an effort to take action that will ideally lead to further action and progress.
I hope to keep to this, though I probably won't do it in the order given. I also chose the directors' poll over the critic's one because I want the filmmakers to tell me what inspired them the most, not the best films according to critics. (I'm not saying I don't respect critics.) The first entry will be on Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
Sight and Sound 2022 Directors' Poll of the 100 greatest films of all time: 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2. Citizen Kane (1941)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. Tokyo Story (1953)
5. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
6. Vertigo (1958)
7. 8½ (1963)
8. Mirror (1975)
9. Persona (1966)
10. In the Mood for Love (2000)
11. Rashomon (1950)
12. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
13. Stalker (1979)
14. Seven Samurai (1954)
15. The Godfather Part II (1974)
16. Close-Up (1990)
17. Goodfellas (1990)
18. Chinatown (1974)
19. The Shining (1980)
20. La Dolce Vita (1960)
21. The Rules of the Game (1939)
22. Apocalypse Now (1979)
23. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
24. The Apartment (1960)
25. Andrei Rublev (1966)
26. Blue Velvet (1986)
27. Come and See (1985)
28. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
29. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
30. Pather Panchali (1955)
31. Barry Lyndon (1975)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
33. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
34. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
35. Breathless (1960)
36. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
37. Paths of Glory (1957)
38. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
39. North by Northwest (1959)
40. The Third Man (1949)
41. Some Like It Hot (1959)
42. City Lights (1931)
43. The Seventh Seal (1957)
44. Modern Times (1936)
45. Wild Strawberries (1957)
46. L'Avventura (1960)
47. The Red Shoes (1948)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Wings of Desire (1987)
50. Taxi Driver (1976)
51. Blade Runner (1982)
52. The 400 Blows (1959)
53. The Tree of Life (2011)
54. Ikiru (1952)
55. Casablanca (1942)
56. The Leopard (1963)
57. Alien (1979)
58. Playtime (1967)
59. Jaws (1975)
60. Mulholland Drive (2001)
61. Amélie (2001)
62. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
63. No Country for Old Men (2007)
64. The Pianist (2002)
65. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
66. There Will Be Blood (2007)
67. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
68. The Lives of Others (2006)
69. Spirited Away (2001)
70. Parasite (2019)
71. Schindler's List (1993)
72. The Graduate (1967)
73. Heat (1995) X
74. Do the Right Thing (1989)
75. The Great Dictator (1940)
76. Metropolis (1927)
77. Her (2013)
78. The Truman Show (1998)
79. Oldboy (2003)
80. The Social Network (2010)
81. Moonlight (2016)
82. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
83. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
84. 12 Angry Men (1957)
85. The King of Comedy (1982)
86. The Searchers (1956)
87. Yojimbo (1961)
88. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
89. Gone with the Wind (1939)
90. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
91. Zodiac (2007)
92. All About Eve (1950)
93. The Big Lebowski (1998)
94. The Green Mile (1999)
95. Solaris (1972)
96. Memories of Murder (2003)
97. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
98. Whiplash (2014) X
99. The Shape of Water (2017)
100. The Lighthouse (2019).
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